A total of 201 consecutive cadaveric kidney transplantations were performed in 188 patients at the Chinese Great Wall Hospital, Beijing, from October 1977 to May 1990. The overall 1-, 2-, 5-, and 10-year graft survival rates were 75.5%, 64.5%, 37.0%, and 32.9%, respectively. In the last 5 years, these figures have risen to 83.7% at 1 year, 69.5% at 2 years, and 40.8% at 5 years, respectively. The 14 variables correlating to graft survival in the present study were analyzed using the log rank test for univariate analysis and the Cox proportional hazard model for multivariate analysis. The results show that immunosuppressive drug therapy, cold ischemia time, acute tubular necrosis, and infection were significant factors affecting the survival of cadaveric kidney grafts. Triple therapy with low-dose cyclosporin, as compared to conventional immunosuppressive drug therapy, significantly increased the 1-year graft survival rate (90.3% vs 31.3%) but did not influence the long-term graft survival rate after 3 years. The incidence of acute tubular necrosis significantly correlated to the cold ischemia time and influenced the 1-year graft survival. Analysis showed that the lymphocytotoxic crossmatch affected graft survival after 3 years and that most late graft losses were due to chronic rejection, suggesting that histocompatibility is the strongest factor affecting long-term graft survival. A beneficial effect of pretransplant blood transfusions on long-term graft survival was seen in patients treated with conventional immunosuppressive drugs but not in cyclosporin-treated patients.